Drug interactions Archives

Simple graphic depicting a bottle of antibiotics surrounded by different colored illustrations of bacteria. Text says: "Why take probiotics with an antibiotic"

Why Take Probiotics With An Antibiotic

Digestive Health, Drug interactions / By @drHoberman

Why Take Probiotics With An Antibiotic

We spend a lot of time talking about antibiotics in this space for good reasons.

Once upon a time, antibiotics were considered “miracle” drugs and were prescribed for all kinds of reasons. Many of these uses were justified (strep throat was a fatal disease before antibiotics) but now these drugs are being prescribed for viral infections (common colds and the flu) that often create more health problems than solutions.

It’s hard to dispute how often antibiotics are prescribed inappropriately, based on the recent findings of an Oregon State University report on outpatient visits to health care providers.

In that Oregon State report, roughly 25 percent of the antibiotics were prescribed for the wrong reason and an additional 18 percent were prescribed for no reason at all, amounting to an alarming 56 million prescriptions during the study period.

Unfortunately, this unnecessary overuse of antibiotics coupled with our daily exposure to antimicrobial chemicals has created an environment in which these drugs often don’t work as they should or not at all.

At times in your life, you will need to take an antibiotic to resolve a health problem. That’s a given.

The number one piece of advice we consistently recommend: Take a probiotic, ideally one with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, to protect your gut, the center of your body’s immune system.

Although previous reports have cited probiotic benefits in reducing gut-related side effects when taking an antibiotic, some still question whether probiotics taken in conjunction with antibiotics protect the healthy composition and diversity of a patient’s microbiome.

However, a recent paper appearing in the Journal of Medical Microbiology confirms what we’ve been saying for a very long time.

The Probiotic Benefits

Researchers from TCU, the University of Texas and Mexico conducted a systematic review of 29 studies published over the past seven years related to how probiotics work alongside antibiotics.

Overall, the report concluded taking a probiotic with an antibiotic lessens or prevents changes to the composition of microbiomes, protects the diversity of species in the gut and even restores friendly bacterial species like Faecalibacterium prausnitzii that reduce inflammation.

When antibiotic treatments were combined with probiotics, the majority of those changes in gut bacteria were less pronounced and some were even prevented, says study co-author Dr. Elisa Marroquin, an assistant professor at TCU.

In fact, Dr. Morroquin says there is no good reason not to take a probiotic when antibiotics are prescribed.

Based on our antibiotic protocol (check out our Antibiotic 101 article), we suggest taking a probiotic like EndoMune about two hours before the prescribed antibiotic to give your microbiome time for those beneficial bacteria to reach your gut and protect your immune health.

Resources

Journal of Medical Microbiology

Microbiology Society

Medical News Today

Oregon State University

Acne, Antibiotics and Your Bones

Children’s Health, Drug interactions, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Acne, Antibiotics and Your Bones

The human body develops as much as 40 percent of its peak bone mass during our teenage years, and at the same time our microbiome matures.

For many teens, those puberty years are often plagued with raging hormones leading to problems with acne.

When over-the-counter skin care products don’t do the job, often, dermatologists recommend prescription-strength creams in combination with an antibiotic.

Fortunately, most health experts recognize the damage antibiotics can do to deplete the beneficial bacteria in the human gut, especially when antibiotics are taken for extended periods of time.

What happens to a teenager’s health when dermatologists prescribe antibiotics for as long as two years?

The damage goes way beyond the human gut and may affect the development of a teenager’s bones as they mature, according to research appearing in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Here’s how…

Getting To The Gut

Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina had previously conducted a study that showed how high doses of antibiotics triggered an inflammatory response that impaired the maturation of bones and increased the activity of osteoclasts that break down bone tissue.

These previous results led this team to study the effect one dose of a common antibiotic — minocycline, a member of the tetracycline class of drugs — would have on the bone growth of mice at a similar age as humans during puberty (6-12 weeks old).

Three concerning takeaways that affect gut health:

Mice didn’t experience an inflammatory response as before, but the presence of an antibiotic changed the healthy mix of gut bacteria that triggered a decrease in bone mass and affected how their skeletons matured.
The long-term use of antibiotics prevented the tiny microbiomes and skeletons of mice from recovering to a stable state even after the antibiotics were stopped.
Not only did the presence of an antibiotic disrupt the composition of gut bacteria, it also affected the way the liver communicates to the small intestine via bile acids, triggering significant decreases in the formation of bones.

Probiotic Protection

While antibiotics still remain one of the go-to treatments for acne, health organizations like the American Academy of Dermatology recommend taking them for the shortest effective duration to prevent future problems with antibiotic resistance.

However, if you really need to take an antibiotic, a recent report we shared with you points to evidence that taking a probiotic can be effective for treating acne as well as protecting the health of your gut.

To get the protection you need, be sure that any probiotic you take is formulated with multiple and proven strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families like the healthy mix contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

The Journal of Clinical Investigation

Medical University of South Carolina

American Academy of Dermatology

Mayo Clinic

How To Take An Antibiotic

Drug interactions / By @drHoberman

Do You REALLY Know How to Take an Antibiotic?

After all the years and the repeated health warnings, you’d assume people would be more careful about how they take an antibiotic, but you would be very wrong, according to a national survey conducted by the University of Michigan.

Researchers surveyed more than 2,200 patients between ages 50-80 about their use of antibiotics as part of the school’s ongoing work with the National Poll on Healthy Aging.

Are You Overusing Antibiotics?

A vast majority of patients (89 percent) believe overusing antibiotics can lead to a time when they no longer work as they’re prescribed and even more say they’re cautious about using them (91 percent).

Unfortunately, the poll numbers drop sharply when patients are asked about their own use of antibiotics.

For example, a majority believe antibiotics are over-prescribed, yet 41 percent would expect to receive a prescription if they saw their physician with a persistent problem like a cold or the flu.

Also, 34 percent of the patients polled believed a course of antibiotics would relieve a cold or the flu although neither respond to them, according to the CDC.

The other serious issue researchers discovered was a small but consistent number of patients (about 13 percent) who were prescribed an antibiotic but never finished taking them, increasing the risk of future resistance.

And what did patients do with the leftover antibiotics? More than half the time, they took those drugs without consulting their physician…

Follow Our Antibiotic Protocol

A quick look at these numbers is another sobering reminder that people remain unaware about the real problems with antibiotic resistance, underscoring the findings of a 2019 report from Oregon State University that concluded 43 percent of antibiotics prescribed in America were completely unnecessary.

What’s more, overusing antibiotics is only part of the problem, especially when you add exposures to antibacterial chemicals in soaps, paints and other unexpected places.

All of these things lead to health problems that cannot be treated by the tools we have currently have, plus they disrupt and deplete the balance of gut bacteria that keeps your immune system strong.

Should you have any concerns about taking antibiotics and how to use them safely (if you need them), take a couple of minutes to review our Antibiotics 101 article that features some simple steps you can take to lessen the need for them.

If you absolutely need an antibiotic, be sure to protect the healthy balance of bacteria in your gut by taking a probiotic about two hours before that necessary medication to give it extra time to reach the center of your immune system.

When you’re evaluating a good probiotic, consider ones that feature multiple strains of proven beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families and a prebiotic (that feeds the good bugs in your gut), like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology

University of Michigan Mhealth Lab

National Poll on Healthy Aging

Oregon State University

CDC

Taking Too Much Melatonin

Drug interactions / By @drHoberman

A Sleepy Problem: Taking Too Much Melatonin

There’s no doubt that getting a good night’s sleep is one of the best, easiest and most restorative things you can do for your body.

Some health experts have even compared your body’s need for sleep to a computer that needs to “reboot” from time to time so it runs better.

When people have problems getting the right amount of sleep due to shift work, jet lag, or insomnia, many take the easy way out by turning to an over-the-counter sleep aid like melatonin for help.

Unfortunately, taking what most people assume is a “safe” sleep aid creates its own set of problems, especially for kids, according to a recent study from the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that details a dramatic increase in poisonings involving melatonin.

By The Numbers

Between 2012-2021, the number of children who had ingested too much melatonin ballooned by a staggering 530 percent to more than 52,000, according to data collected by the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System.

During that decade. the number of calls to poison control exploded from 2012 (0.6 percent) to 2021 (4.9 percent). Nearly 28,000 children received care for a melatonin overdose, more than 4,000 children were hospitalized (mostly teenagers) and two babies (under age 2) died. Melatonin overdosing hit its peak prior to the coronavirus pandemic (a 38 percent jump from 2019 to 2020).

These rising numbers may have also shed light on an even deeper and known problem: A significant variance in the amount of melatonin contained in supplements based on their labelling.

The amounts of melatonin in a tablet may deviate from a decrease of 83 percent to an increase as high as 478 percent (based on its labelled content), according to a 2017 study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Although most of you recognize melatonin as a supplement, it’s also a hormone produced and released by the pineal gland in the brain. The production of melatonin is light-sensitive too, meaning the pineal gland produces more melatonin at night to help us get to sleep and much less during the day.

What’s more, some foods produce melatonin naturally (flaxseeds, walnuts, yellow bell peppers, almonds and goji berries) but not enough to make a real difference in your sleep.

So, if melatonin can be problematic, what do you do to get more sleep that doesn’t involve a drug?

Safer, More Effective Sleep Solutions

If you’re looking for ways to improve your rest, there’s plenty of safe and easy ways to do it as we described in our recent Sleep 101 blog.

Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule and routine, shutting down the tablet and keeping your bedroom cool and comfortable can go a long way toward helping you get the shuteye your body needs.

Your gut also plays a role in your quest for more sleep too, as studies have shown how consuming prebiotics, the parts of vegetables made of non-digestible plant fibers and carbohydrates, can be just as helpful.

But it can be challenging to eat enough vegetables every day to make a real difference in your sleep.

However, you can ensure your family and your kids get the prebiotics they need by taking a probiotic like EndoMune Junior and EndoMune Advanced Probiotic that contains multiple strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families and a prebiotic (FOS) derived from plant fibers.

Resources

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine

Slate

NPR

McGill Office for Science and Society

Mayo Clinic

UTIs 101

Drug interactions, Women’s Health / By @drHoberman

UTI 101: The Antibiotic Challenge

What’s worse than experiencing a urinary tract infection (UTI)? For as many as 30 percent of all women, it’s knowing that they may experience another UTI at some point over the following six months.

Several variables can play a role in making women more vulnerable to recurrent UTIs than others, according to the Mayo Clinic:

Estrogen levels changing during menopause.
The shape of your urinary tract.
Bacteria invading your urethra during sex.
The presence of bladder or kidney stones.

The common bacteria issue that triggers a UTI, at least 85 percent of the time, is exposure to E. coli bacteria.

Typically, physicians prescribe a round of antibiotics to treat a UTI, usually with good success. But what happens in cases when these infections happen repeatedly and why?

Bad Bacteria In Hiding

A team of scientists from Washington University School of Medicine, Harvard and MIT tracked the health of 31 women over the course of a year, including 15 with histories of recurrent UTIs, via blood and urine samples taken at the start of the study period and stool samples collected every month.

During those 12 months, 24 UTIs were diagnosed and only from women who had already experienced infections. When patients were diagnosed with a UTI, additional blood, stool and urine samples were taken, according to the study appearing in Nature Microbiology.

Interestingly, researchers found the presence of E. coli had nothing to do with repeat UTI infections.

The real difference-maker among women experiencing recurrent UTIs was a more common problem: A less diverse balance of healthy gut bacteria, allowing more disease-causing species to hang around and multiply.

Also, women with recurrent UTIs had microbiomes that contained low amounts of bacteria that produce butyrate, the short-chain fatty acids created when the gut processes soluble fiber that reduces chronic low-grade inflammation.

Better Options For Treating UTIs

Although more laypeople understand the problems with taking antibiotics and sometimes taking multiple rounds of them, the ones who don’t seem to be doctors…

Many physicians who ignore the connection between UTIs and good gut health prescribe antibiotics in a vacuum hoping that throwing more drugs at the problem will eventually solve it. Unfortunately, that strategy often makes things worse, according to Dr. Scott Hultgren, co-senior author of the study.

The women in the group with no recurrent UTIs were better able to clear the bad bacteria before they caused problems than those experiencing recurrent infections due to “a distinct immune response to bacterial invasion of the bladder potentially mediated by the gut microbiome,” says lead study author Dr. Colin Worby.

“Our study clearly demonstrates that antibiotics do not prevent future infections or clear UTI-causing strains from the gut, and they may even make recurrence more likely by keeping the microbiome in a disrupted state.”

There are plenty of things you can do to avoid a UTI that have nothing to do with taking a drug, from following good hygiene practices to staying hydrated and avoiding products that irritate your urethra.

And, if you’re looking for solutions for handling a UTI or preventing one from reoccurring, consider taking a probiotic with multiple species of beneficial bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

References

Nature Microbiology

Washington University School of Medicine

Medical News Today

Harvard Medical School

Mayo Clinic

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Antibiotics For Babies: Proceed With Caution

Children’s Health, Drug interactions / By @drHoberman

Early Antibiotics May Harm Your Baby’s Gut

When we discuss the overuse of antibiotics, it’s usually focused on adults who rely on them too often to treat health problems that would be resolved in time on their own.

This over-reliance can often mean these one-time “miracle drugs” may not work when they’re truly necessary, and create openings for more health problems down the road.

Few of us expect babies to be exposed to antibiotics so early, but we recently learned how often they’re prescribed — even once — for little ones under age 2 may increase the possibility of food allergies, obesity and many more health challenges.

What’s more, little good happens when infants are treated with antibiotics during their first week of life, according to a recent report in Nature Communications.

Too Much Exposure To Antibiotics

Experts estimate as many as 10 percent of all newborns are prescribed an antibiotic and that doctors justify them based on “suspected” infections.

This overprescribing is justified by some doctors to prevent a problem they suspect could happen and get serious in a hurry, although a small number of babies ultimately experience an infection.

With those facts in mind, a team of researchers from the UK and The Netherlands conducted a clinical trial involving 227 babies to observe how antibiotics would affect their tiny microbiomes.

Nearly 150 babies with “suspected” sepsis were treated by one of three antibiotics, with the remainder were part of a control group who received no antibiotics. All babies had fecal or rectal samples taken before and after treatments at 1, 4 and 12 months of age.

Among the infants who were prescribed an antibiotic, the harmful effects were obvious.

Babies experienced significant decreases in various species of Bifidobacterium, microbes that help them better digest breast milk and support their good gut health.
Scientists observed a change in more than 250 strains of bacteria in the guts of babies, flipping the balance in favor of more unhealthy harmful microbes.
Those microbial changes lasted at least 12 months and did not improve with breastfeeding.
Among the antibiotics prescribed, the combination of penicillin and gentamicin was the least detrimental on a newborn’s microbiome.

The start of antibiotic treatment, not its duration, appears to be trigger for gut health problems, says researcher Dr. Marlies van Houten, a pediatrician at the Spaarne Hospital in The Netherlands.

A Probiotic In Your Baby’s Future?

The evidence is clear that antibiotics are prescribed way too often, and breastfeeding may not restore the developing microbiomes of infants, so what are your options?

Should an antibiotic be necessary, we recommend talking to your pediatrician about giving your baby a probiotic with multiple species of beneficial bacteria that can boost the critical balance of bugs in their tiny microbiomes.

If you’re looking for a probiotic with the right made for your baby, consider EndoMune Jr. Powder formulated with 10 billion CFUs of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families plus a prebiotic that feeds their developing microbiome.

Just a half-teaspoon of EndoMune Jr. sprinkled in your baby’s formula or added to soft foods (when your baby is ready for them) once a day can make a gut-healthy difference!

Resources

Nature Communications

University of Edinburgh

Medscape

Graphic of large intestine next to a pharmaceutical prescription bottle. Text reads "Antibiotics: Rising Colon Cancer Risks Among Young People

Antibiotics And The Risk Of Colon Cancer

Disease, Drug interactions, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Antibiotics: Rising Colon Cancer Risks Among Young People

For a very long time, health professionals and patients believed colon cancer — the third most common cancer among Americans — was a major health challenge mainly for older folks.

That perception changed for good recently, when the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended lowering initial screenings for colon cancer to age 45.

That was a huge wake-up call, but a very necessary one given the steady increase in younger colon cancer cases and lower screening rates among that age group.

That uptick also reflects data collected by the American Cancer Society that found patients born in 1990 have double the risk of colon cancer compared to people born in 1950.

All of this underscores the fact that colon cancer is a multi-faceted problem, including several risk factors (poor diets and sedentary lifestyles) well within our control.

We can now add antibiotics to the growing list of concerns based a pair of recent reports from the UK and Sweden.

More Antibiotics, More Colon Cancer Reports

Most of you are very well aware of the disruptive nature of antibiotics, and not just to the balance of bacteria in your gut.

Antibiotics have been prescribed so often for health problems, including viral conditions like the flu and common colds that they’re not equipped to treat, they don’t work when we really need them.

Based on two large analyses of patients in Scotland and Sweden, this very liberal use of antibiotics may increase one’s colon cancer risks too.

In the Swedish analysis that studied the health of 40,000 patients from the Swedish Colorectal Cancer Registry from 2010-16 to 200,000 cancer-free patients, antibiotics increased the risk of colon cancer by 17 percent.

What’s more, Swedish scientists believe the disruptive impact of antibiotics on the microbiome is the probable trigger for this increase in colon cancer patients.

The Scottish review of 8,000 colon cancer patients that compared to an equal number of healthy folks found a similar increase in colon cancer rates across all age groups, with one more very alarming trend.

The risk of colon cancer among patients under age 50 was elevated by nearly 50 percent, compared to 9 percent in the above age 50 group. What’s more, very common quinolone (like Cipro) and sulfonamide (like Bactrim) antibiotics were associated with cancers on the right side of the colon where microbiomes reside.

So, how can colon cancer risks jump so high for younger folks apart from the overuse of antibiotics and sedentary lifestyle habits?

Experts believe the lack of routine screenings for young people from ages 20-40 account for high colon cancer rates. Moreover, fewer physicians and younger patients will connect unusual abdominal pains with colon cancer, thus those problems will be detected much later when the disease is harder to treat.

What You Can Do!

First, it’s important to remember that taking any antibiotics should be done wisely and cautiously. If you have any concerns about an antibiotic (or any other drug), don’t hesitate to consult with your doctor or pharmacist.

When an antibiotic is necessary, please take it as prescribed by your physician until your course is completed, not only until you’re feeling better.

Want to lessen your need for antibiotics? I urge you to review my recent Antibiotics 101 article for some very important tips that cover everything from good hand-cleaning rules to monitoring your use of prescription pain relievers.

If you want to protect the healthy balance of bacteria in your gut, especially while you’re taking an antibiotic, be sure to take a probiotic about two hours afterward. (Check out our article on the basics of How to Take a Probiotic for more guidance.)

Also, there’s growing evidence we’ve shared here about the benefits of taking a probiotic in relation to treating and possibly preventing colon cancer.

Remember that any probiotic you consider should include multiple strains of beneficial bacteria to protect your gut, the center of your body’s immune system, like those found in like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Umea University

Annals of Oncology

National Cancer Institute

WebMD

Keck Medicine of USC

European Society for Medical Oncology

Text: Beat Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea with Probiotics

Treat Diarrhea With Probiotics

Digestive Health, Drug interactions, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Beat Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea With Probiotics

The impact antibiotics have on human health and our gut is one of the most important things modern medicine has learned over the past 20 years.

Antibiotics remain effective tools that treat many problems, but relying on them too often creates additional health complications.

Even when they’re used properly, antibiotics are disruptive to the healthy balance of bacteria in the human gut, spurring antibiotic-associated diarrhea, a very common problem that affects roughly 1 out of every 5 patients.

Fortunately, modern medicine has embraced the important role probiotics play in protecting the healthy balance of bacteria in the human gut, the center of our immune system.

What’s more, probiotics are a safe, effective treatment for antibiotic-associated diarrhea, according to a study recently published in the health journal Nutrients.

**The Bifidobacterium Way**

Scientists from the University of Maryland and Georgetown University examined the benefits of a proprietary blend of Bifidobacterium lactis on 42 patients who were given amoxicillin-clavulanate, a common antibiotic.

Scientists from the University of Maryland and Georgetown University assigned 38 healthy patients to eat a daily serving of yogurt containing Bifidobacterium lactis for two weeks, along with a standard, week-long regimen of the common antibiotic, amoxicillin-clavulanate.

(Bifidobacterium lactis is one of 10 strains of beneficial bacteria contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic and EndoMune Junior Advanced Chewable Probiotic.)

An additional 18 patients were assigned to a control group who ate the daily yogurt minus the probiotic bacteria for two weeks while also taking the antibiotic for a week.

No surprise, patients who took a probiotic had a healthier balance of bacteria in their guts than those assigned to a placebo, but how?

For one, patients assigned the placebo had significantly lesser amounts of the short-chain fatty acid acetate, a metabolite produced by gut bacteria, than those taking a probiotic. In fact, acetate levels among patients in the probiotic group more rapidly returned to normal by day 30.

Additionally, researchers cited the benefits of taking a probiotic the very same day they started their seven-day course of antibiotics.

“Starting the probiotic as early as possible, before the antibiotic symptoms have progressed, may result in a greater opportunity for the probiotic mechanisms to be expressed and may ultimately lead to more beneficial clinical outcomes,” says study co-author Dr. Daniel Merenstein of the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Follow Your Antibiotic Protocol!

The results of this study were so impressive and positive, the National Institutes of Health plan to fund a follow-up study to determine the best time to take a probiotic.

Luckily, if you follow our blog regularly, you may already have an antibiotic protocol in place, so you already know what to do!

The important thing to remember: Give yourself a two-hour break between a probiotic — ideally one with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune — and an antibiotic to give those beneficial bacteria some extra time to do their work.

Resources

Nutrients

University of Maryland School of Medicine

Oregon State University

Mayo Clinic

Drugs.com

TEXT: Antibiotics 101 How to protect your gut health

Antibiotics 101: Protect Your Gut

Digestive Health, Drug interactions, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Antibiotics 101: How to Protect Your Gut Health

Every so often, we like to remind you about basic health and lifestyle steps you can take that may help or harm your gut health, like the do’s and don’ts of taking an antibiotic safely.

Antibiotics were once considered “miracle” drugs that treated serious health issues and controlled the spread of disease. For example, some childhood conditions like strep throat and bacterial meningitis were fatal diseases before antibiotics.

Over time, however, antibiotic drugs transitioned from their “miracle” status to being prescribed for many more health problems, such as viral infections like colds, the flu and most coughs and many sinus infections, that do more harm than good.

An estimated 43 percent of the antibiotic prescriptions in America were issued for health problems that were completely unnecessary, based on numbers compiled in a 2019 Oregon State University report.

How did this happen?

The simple explanation: The overuse of antibiotics, plus our exposure to antibacterial chemicals in soaps, paints and even gym equipment, has over-sterilized our lives to such a degree that these drugs may promote resistance and, in some cases, do not work as they should or at all.

This could lead to infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics become much more costly (more expensive treatments, trips to the doctor) and much harder to treat.

Are you concerned about that next antibiotic prescription from your physician? We’ve got you covered.

Your antibiotic protocol

Antibiotics are valuable medications when they’re prescribed by your doctor for good reasons, not because you’ve had a persistent cold or flu and want to feel better right now.

If you’re concerned about over-exposure to antibiotics, it’s important to talk to your doctor or pharmacist. Do not be afraid to ask them questions!

And, if you do need to take an antibiotic, take them as prescribed by your physician until your course is completed. That’s critical because lots of people only take antibiotics until they start feeling better, then drop them.

Here are some extra steps you can take on your own to lessen the need for antibiotics:

Keep your hands clean with plain soap and warm water, and ditch the antibacterial soap.
Cook your foods thoroughly, and have a working food thermometer in your kitchen always at the ready.
Monitor your use of prescription pain relievers, as some may worsen the problem.
Stay up-to-date on your doctor-recommended vaccinations. Some vaccines will protect you and your family from bacterial infections stemming from whooping cough and diphtheria.

When you absolutely need to take an antibiotic for a health problem, please remember that it’s vital to protect your gut, the center of your body’s immune system too.

Antibiotics create problems for the gut by depleting the balance of bacteria that normally keep you healthy. If you have to take an antibiotic and want to protect the health of your gut, consider taking a probiotic, ideally with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

EndoMune’s powerful formula of 10 beneficial strains of bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families and a prebiotic (that feeds the good bugs in your gut) not only protects but supports your immune health.

Taking a probiotic like EndoMune about two hours before that necessary antibiotic gives those beneficial bacteria extra time to reach your gut and protect it and your immune health when you really need it the most.

Resources

Could a Probiotic Help You?

Digestive Health, Drug interactions, Mental Health, Probiotics, Women’s Health / By @drHoberman

Probiotics seem to be everywhere right now; in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, lining the supplement shelves, we’re even seeing them in the beauty and skincare section! Hearing about all the benefits of probiotics may have you wondering, “Do I need to take one?”

Defined by the World Health Organization, probiotics are “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host.” They are not chemicals like antibiotics, but cultures of live bacteria or yeasts that help to maintain the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut microbiome. When your gut becomes unbalanced it can cause many health issues, such as gas, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and obesity. Probiotics have been shown to help “restore the healthy composition and function of the gut microbiome” and thus, help combat many of these troublesome issues.

Think taking a probiotic supplement could benefit you? Below we’ll discuss a handful of reasons why people may be adding a probiotic supplement to their daily routine.

When you need immune system support

Do you feel like you get sick every flu or cold season? If yes, then you may need to strengthen your immune system. 70-80% of your immune system resides in your gut and the health of your microbiome directly impacts the overall health of your immune system. Probiotics are a great way to help support your immune system and protect your body against harmful viruses.

When you’re taking antibiotics

Antibiotics are used to kill disease-causing bacteria in the body. This is good, but sometimes taking an antibiotic can trigger diarrhea. That’s because these strong antibiotics can kill our good bacteria while targeting the bad bacteria resulting in an unbalanced microbiome. Taking a probiotic while on antibiotics is a great way to help your body stay in balance and prevent a case of antibiotic-associated diarrhea.

It’s important to remember to take your probiotic supplements at least two hours after taking your antibiotics to ensure the antibiotics do not kill the good bacteria in your probiotics!

When you’re having digestive problems (and when you’re not!)

If you constantly suffer from stomach problems such as gas, constipation, bloating, and diarrhea, your microbiome may be unbalanced. Taking a probiotic has been shown to help restore the balance of your gut microbiome and improve the functioning of your GI tract.

When you have allergies

Up to 30% of the general population suffers from one or more atopic diseases including allergies, asthma, and eczema. These are usually caused by heightened immune responses to common allergens, especially inhaled or food allergens. Probiotics have been shown to help alleviate allergic inflammation and food allergy symptoms. Another published study demonstrated that the probiotic strain Lactobacillus casei decreased the number of days preschool children with allergic rhinitis were sick over 12 months. If you tend to lock yourself inside during allergy season, then a probiotic may be what you need!

When you experience frequent yeast infections

If you suffer from frequent yeast infections, it could be a sign that there is a disturbance of the beneficial bacteria in your body. Studies have shown that supplementing with probiotics can improve symptoms of yeast infections and may also be able to prevent potential infections. Vaginal yeast infections are surprisingly common, as 75% of all women are likely to have a yeast infection at least once in their lives. While there are many treatment options, beginning to take a probiotic supplement is one of the easiest, all-natural ways to correct the loss of good bacteria and bring your body back into balance.

Convinced yet?

It can be difficult to maintain the balance of bacteria in your microbiome when things like diet, travel, and stress can throw it off. In some circumstances, eating plenty of probiotic-rich foods may not be enough, and a probiotic supplement may be able to help keep everything in line. If you find yourself experiencing any of these health concerns consider taking a probiotic supplement to help achieve a healthy microbiome, strong immune system, and an overall healthy body.